Thursday, February 26, 2009
LaSt Monthly Spending Challange Post.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
$250 Target GC Giveaway from Barking Mad
Over at my friend Elizabeths blog she posted a contest that is going on right now hosted by Barking Mads blog. Their having a giveaway for a $250 Target Giftcard. Man could I use that right now !! Holy smokes! The twins birthday is coming up!! OHHH Pick me Auds, Pick me!! (hand raised waving in the air!!!)
All you have to do is post the button she has on her site and also tell her your favorite blog you've written. Show her your most proud and favorite blog. I havent been posting too long but I have one that stands out to me.
My favorite blog post would be about my Crockpot and the recipes I shared. I know not very glamorous but hey, anything that keeps me sain and helps me spend more time either with the family or doing fun stuff is worth posting :) Everyone should have a crockpot. Im thinking maybe it should be a law.
My entry is: Do you Love Your Crockpot??
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Free Personal signatures - cool!
Monday, February 23, 2009
The dreaded Spending Accountablity Challange
LOL Okay its not too dreadful but Im really tired of keeping track.
Coupon DEALS!!
Theres 3 bags of gummy bears (hard to see) just waiting for me to open them. Now im drooling! Ahhh, they must wait for disneyland. But the minute I hit the gates watch out! Hey, look at my cute Hershey shirt that Eagle eyes found for me :) Score!
Third Store was Riteaid
Original total $37.30
I paid oop $12.27
Getting back $12.98
Made $0.71
SCORE!
This includes another gift for someone :)
Do you see it?
Might not make it though.
Might come up missing.
It wasent me I swear! (As choclote is smeared all over me face)
Fourth and last stop with COSTCO!!
Used my rebate check.
Gotta love free food!!
Got $211 worth of food and stockup items and I have enough left to pay my costco membership $100, money for the twins birthday and alittle left over for Disneyland. We have 2 trips planned within a month :)
So all together we had a pretty good day!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
How I made the sign.
Theres probably alot easier way to make it but this is how I did it.
I bought the wood from Lowes. My sign is smaller than the Ethan Allen sign. I made it
33" x 27 1/2". I used 5 1/2 x 1" pieces of wood. I used 5 of them cut to 33". Because I didnt want to spend the money on a biscuit joiner machine thingy and I didnt want to jimyrig something, the guy at Lowes suggested just getting some smaller boards and nailing them down the back of the art work. So theres (2) approx 1" x 3" boards running down the back and the 5 boards are nailed onto those boards. (so 10 nails will be needed) I like this because the art looks like its standing off the wall. Very cool. You can also use wood glue if you want to make it more secure but Im too impatient so I didnt use it.
1. Cut the wood to the desired lengths, sand the wood alittle.
2. Paint the wood black (I already had black matte spray paint so I used that)
3. After they have dried, sand the wood alittle, especially around the edges to make it look worn.
4. Nail the pieces together
5.Draw the roundish circle in the center
5.Once you have the circle where you want it, draw your letters and numbers
6. Paint the circle and your numbers. I just used my acrylic art paint. I did two layer. Painted then let it dry then did another
7. I printed the Ethan Allen picture from online, scanned it, and used my photo editor to blow it up as big as I could get it. You probably could take it to an office store and have them blow it up even more but I was on a budget so I did it myself
8. After the paint is dry I used graphite/copier paper to trace on the horse
9. Paint the horse black, two coats also
10. After paint is dry, I used a power sander to sand the top and edges to give it an aged look.
11. I nailed some picture hangers on the back. Ta Da!
If you need me to explain alittle more on certain steps let me know. I'll be happy to explain them.
My new Sign
Friday, February 20, 2009
What makes your house special to you?
I would love to hear from you and see pictures of your homes too. What makes it special to you. What makes you smile? What are the things in your home that are TOTALLY YOU?
Mine are....
This HUGE mirror was a Mothers Day gift from my sweet DH Its hanging in the dining room.
The leopard rug that greets you when you walk in our front door.
The wall clock my DH bought for me when we moved in the house. He has name it our "Jack the Ripper clock" since it looks like something that would be on a London street.
Heres our kitchen fan. While the "fans" are spining the whole unit also rotates.
The other three fans in our house have leaves for blades. Their all different. Here the one in our family room
I collect old suitcases and I use them in my decorating. I find them mostly at yard sales for $1 each. When I look at them I wonder where they have traveled to.
More suitecases. My DH stuck his great grandfathers walking cane up there so thats what your seeing crossing the front of one of them.
More african masks. The wall looks white in the picture. How funny. Its actually all the same beige color.
I LOVE black and white photography. Heres one of the pairs of large pictures I have hanging in the family room. I bought the frames and pictures at World Market.
A New Award
The rules are to post it on your blog and pass it on to 10 other deserving bloggers.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Where I blog
Now I'm supposed to tag five others. Once you are tagged, post a picture of where you blog. Feel free to tell us a little about your space, or explain certain items in more detail. Or not. Tag five other bloggers to show them their blogs. Im actually only going to pick four so here they are:
Marva: Another mother of twins and amazing budget dinner maker!
Elizabeth: Extremely in the know of all things. My smart friend!
Sarah: My friend from the Cafe that is extremely talented @ decorating!
Marty39: Check out her living room. The small changes are Beautiful!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 15 & 16
Monthly spending total still @ $1121.51
(edit: messed up on gasoline total need to add another $30.33 so total is actually $1151.84)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
How Low Can You Go??? Menu Challange SATURDAY
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 14
My DH took me to lunch at one of our favorite steak houses $48.00
Theres a big storm coming in and Im like a squirrel and have to stock up on my nuts so off to Super Target to load up on some groceries. $158.00 Hopefully this will last us for one and half weeks.
New monthly spending total is $ 1121.51
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 13
Gas for F350 diesel $50 (edit: its $80.33 not $50)
Propane $130
Gas for explorer $10.24
Pizza $26
Elec. $90.63
New Monthy spending total $945.84
Thursday, February 12, 2009
I LOVE MY CROCKPOT!!! Do you love yours?
How Low Can You Go??? Menu Challange THURSDAY
No grocery shopping trips today either.
Today was great. I love my crockpot. Im going to post some of my tried and true recipes in the next post. I put chicken breasts in the crockpot topped with salas and cooked on high for 4 hours. Fried some mission yellow tortillas for shells. Topped taco with lettuce, cheese, and sour cream. And used those Famous Del Taco hot sauce packets! YUMMERS!
Chicken tacos
Chicken breasts used 4 large $ 3.92
Salas used 3/4 jar $1.35
Mission tortillas (16) $1.98
oil to fry tortillas $0.50 (gosh I dont know)
lettuce $0.50
cheddar cheese $0.50 (paid $2 for 8oz bag and I used 1/4 of the bag)
sour cream $.0.49
Dinner total $9.24
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 12
How Low Can You Go??? Menu Challange WEDNESDAY
I didnt plan well yesterday (Wednesday).
I went riding in the morning, then worked on homeschool, then I started making phone calls for Life insurance and an appt to get our taxes done and before I knew it late and I forgot to put something in the crockpot for dinner. Sigh.
Since the twins love soup and can eat it every night I made them homemade vegetable soup. Just used what I had so it was easy.8 cups water, beef stock, tomato sauce, can italian stewed tomatoes, carrots, celery, potatoes, & onion. I added some noodles 10 min before it was done. The twins are eatting machines right now and they ate the entire pot of soup!
Break down:
Noodles .25
Celery .25
carrots .50
beef stock .10
stewed tomatoes .75
jar tomato sauce 1.00
potatoes .20
1/2 onion .15
For the hubby and me , I made mash taters, that I topped with groundbeef, onion and gravy, and for side dish I heated a bag of green giant vegetables with sauce. It was really good :)
8 mash taters 1.60 (theres leftovers)
ground beef 2.00
gravy .25
gg veggies .50 ( theres leftovers)
onion .15
I think I did pretty good for just throwing dinner together on the fly! :)
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 11
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Early Valentines Treat
Couldnt waste the extra chocolate so I dipped some apples wedges and topped with sprinkles:)
Picture of our Ride today :)
Sign on corner
House
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
How Low Can You Go??? Menu Challange TUESDAY
We had cereal & toast for breakfast
Turkey sandwiches for lunch
Bean burritos with sour cream, del taco hot sauce, and cheese
and I made spanish rice for Dinner. Yummers
Juice for drinks
Inexpensive meals all day :)
Last night for a snack I popped popcorn on the stove, drizzled it with real butter and sprinkled cinnamon on the top. We were watching "Monk" and they mentioned that so we thought we would try it. Verdict is still out on this one.
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 10
The only spending I did today was a birthday present for one of the twins. I sent a limit and they get to pick what they want. One of them found a game on Amazon so I bought it. Im not going to count it in my spending since Im getting alittle over $400 back from our Costco/american express card this month.
Im taking out money for the twins birthday, stockup items I'll be buying from Costco, and the rest will be for Disneyland trips (we have season tickets) and to help with groceries for the rest of the month :) Gotta love Costco :) Getting paid to pay your bills and items you buy is a wonderful thing :)
Monthly total $608.74
Monday, February 9, 2009
How Low Can You Go??? Menu Challange MONDAY
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 9
I feel I did really well at CVS. I scanned my card twice at the scanner machine. First time it gave me a free $2 ecb. Yippie, free money!, The second time it gave me a $1.50 coupon for cvs female personal care item and and coupon for free 3 pk. CVS Antacids and $2 off tums.
I did two transactions. I spent out of pocket $20.84. I forgot to use the free $2 ECB. dUH. Oh well, next week. I used a $10 ecb I already had on the first transaction.
Heres what I got for $20.84 includes tax (reg. price would have been & $86.52+tax)
8 pk Bounty papertowels
8 ct. Duracell batteries
120 ct. Bounce dryer sheets
3 bottles Dawn dishsoap
3 heart boxes of chocolates (small ones for valentines)
2 valentines candies for the twins
Gillette power razor
60 ct. tums
2 pk. energy pack
22 ct. cvs pantyliners
cvs brand chewable asprins
3 pk cvs antacids
madagascar 2 movie (valentines present for the twins) !!!! Im so excited about this. They have been wanting this movie. I had a bunch of valentines candy in my cart, and decided to put it all back except for $5 worth and used the money to buy the items that helped me get the movie for $4.99 :)
Went to riteaid and got:
Finesse Conditioner
MortonSalt
Fructis hairspray
Durex lubricant (given to DH for valentines hee hee)
Total came to $11.66 with coupons
Getting back in rebates $10.98
So total was actually $0.68 Yippie!
Went to Walgreens and got:
2 bags 40ct Halls cough drops
1 roll Bounty basics
Zucol cold care 18 lozengers
Fructis shampoo
Revlon Age defying spa foundation
Revlon Creme lip gloss
3 cans of ajax
Total came to $33.18 out of pocket
Getting back in Rebates $32.26
So total was really $0.92 Yahoo!
Went to Lowes for my wood project. $21.33. Used GC so new total out of pocket was $10.31
Went to Target for juice and drinks. I also bought some strawberries. I want to make choc. covered strawberries and Im thinking of making them tomorrow and not wait till Sat. :)
Spent $15.12
Todays spending $91.11
Minus Rebates $43.24
Todays spending $47.87
$560.87 Starting
$47.87 spend today
$608.74 New running Total
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 8
Still at $560.87 for the month. Not for long though. When the bills start to be due thats when this bliss of no spending will end :(
How Low Can You Go??? Menu Challange Starts Today!!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Menu Planning Challange Starts Monday Feb 9th
Monthly Saving Challange ~ February 6
Friday, February 6, 2009
Few money saving tips for the kitchen
Save money at Dinner Time
Monthly Savings Challange ~ February
Edit: Marva,I found her blog. I think I kept trying the wrong one. Everyone I tried wouldnt open up :(
Thanks Amy for starting this challange! You go girl!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Just got back from our Ride :)
Extreme Makeover is in my Neighborhood
My friend Linda and I are going to saddle up and ride over this morning to go peek at it. I'll take my camera and take pictures :) Thats if my horse doesnt dump me on the ground from all the cars and trucks. Hes a sweet horse but I havent ridden him alot lately so hes alittle skiddish!
Im off to put my boots on. Yee Haw!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
HAPPY SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!
Have a great "Football Day" everyone!! :)